COP and the UNFCCC  - A Short Introduction

COP stands for Conference of Parties - an annual gathering of UN member states who are party to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). COP is the supreme decision-making body of the Convention. The UNFCCC secretariat is based in Bonn, Germany, and is tasked with supporting the global response to the threat of climate change. The Executive Secretary of the UNFCCC is Patricia Espinosa.

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change was agreed in  Rio de Janeiro in 1992 and entered into force on 21 March 1994. 197 countries have ratified the Convention. The primary objective of the UNFCCC is to achieve the stabilisation of greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level suitable to prevent dangerous interference with the climate system.

COP takes place annually, unless the parties decide otherwise. The COP Presidency and the venue of COP rotate among the five recognized UN regions - that is Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, Central and Eastern Europe and Western Europe and Others.

At COP, the parties come together to review the implementation of the Convention globally. They also review the implementation of subsequent legal instruments adopted at previous COPs (such as the Paris Agreement, Kyoto Protocol and Subsidiary Bodies, International Mechanisms) and take decisions necessary to promote the effective implementation of the Convention, including institutional and administrative arrangements like the Paris Agreement.

The UNFCCC also provides technical expertise and assists in the analysis and review of climate change information reported by parties. It keeps a registry of Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) established under the Paris Agreement. It is in charge of organising between two and four negotiating sessions per year and in recent years started to support the Marrakech Partnership for Global Climate Action.

The Boiling Point webinar series developed for COP26 by the COP26 Coalition is a useful resource to learn more about the history and process of COP, especially if you are attending for the first time.

Current information about the COP28 can be found on the official website.